Shoreline Sees Higher Voter Turnout With Pre-Paid Ballots

SHORELINE, WA - During the Feb. 14 special election, King County ran an experiment with Shoreline voters.

Unlike other elections, voters did not have to pay for postage to mail back their ballots. King County Elections is reporting that the experiment paid off: there was a 33 percent increase in voter turnout. During this special election, 40 percent of voters returned ballots compared to 30 percent during the previous special election in Shoreline.

King County also paid postage for voters in Maple Valley for a special election there. The entire cost of pre-paying for postage in both elections was about $10,000.

"While many factors impact voter turnout, we are excited to see the increased participation. Our team will test pre-paid postage again for an upcoming election to study its overall impact," King County Elections wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

The pre-pay effort also resulted in fewer people dropping off ballots at county drop-boxes.

The Feb. 14 special election in Shoreline dealt with a bond issue to upgrade schools. The ballot measure was set to be certified on Tuesday, but was passing 74 percent to 25 percent. Close to 20,000 people voted in the election.

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